On December 3 at 7:30 p.m., Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts presents Courtney Stephens’ live performance/film essay, Terra Femme, at the James Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau Street. Admission is free and open to the public.

An essay film, a memoir, a post-colonial reckoning, Terra Femme is a work of live cinema that takes the form of a narrated travelogue, with Stephens leading the viewer through errant cinematic scrapbooks, seeking out the stories behind the images, and wondering after the early 20th century women who captured and witnessed them. This live performance/film has toured widely.

The essay film is comprised of amateur travelogues filmed by women in the 1920s-1950s. With a score by Sarah Davachi, the fims raise questions about female representation in the archive, the role of amateurism in early non-fiction filmmaking, and the politics of the Western gaze.

“Terra Femme is one of those rare cinematic experiences that feels simultaneously monumental and intimate,” said Professor Christopher Harris, who is hosting the event. “I’m terribly excited to have Courtney here in person to present her live-documentary performance for the first time at Princeton. I hope the Princeton community will join us for this special event that can’t otherwise be recreated on demand.”

In addition to Terra Femme, writer/director Stephens co-directed The American Sector with Pacho Velez, which questions the legacy of the Cold War on American self-understanding, following dozens of fragments of the Berlin Wall installed around the U.S. Invention, an experimental fiction feature, premiered in 2024 at the Locarno Film Festival. Her films have been exhibited at MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, The Barbican in London, and numerous other venues.

The event is being presented by Harris in conjunction with his fall course, “Places & Spaces: Exploring the Narratives of Site in Film.” The course focuses on the variety of ways filmmakers have imagined and represented the relationship between the virtual space of screens, primarily in the cinema but also on devices and in the art gallery, and the physical places we encounter in our daily lives.

Visit arts.princeton.edu for more information.